External drive for S9

[jorgek]

What type of external drive should I be using to record HD programs?

I tried a high speed USB stick but I get an error message that its too slow. Also tried formating FAT and NFTS but no success.

 

[Titanium]

Many USB sticks are not not capable of sustained throughput (or are USB 1.0).

Here are some of the things that I have learned though many years of DVR testing and usage:

You should be able to use almost any external USB 2.0 or 3.0 harddrive up to 2GB. A harddrive should have its own power supply and not have any automatic features like one touch back-up, etc. Use the shortest USB cable that you have. NTFS format will give you less management issues. Use the STB to format and delete recordings.

 

[toucan-man]

I had searched for a high speed USB stick, but they seem to max out at about 25Mbs write speed with USB 2.0, although they go much higher with USB 3.0 which my stb does not have. I gave up on the USB stick idea.

The 2TB external harddrive I bought, as promised, has not had any issues recording any HD feeds. It does take a while to connect each time because it goes to sleep after a while. In other words, start recording a minute or two in advance of start time of the program.

 

[xtgold]

oddly enough,an external powered external usb3.0 case even though the receiver is only usb2.0

 

[77TA]

I purchased the fastest usb 2.0 thumb drive I could find (a Patriot XT Rage) just to record hd on the s9 and it still gives the too slow message. I am convinced it is impossible to record hd to a thumb drive with an s9.

 

[Titanium]

Thumb drive recording is possible. Might have to kiss a few frogs...

 

[FaT Air]

External USB HDD with it's own power supply is the way to go. Be sure to get one meant for media center usage so it doesn't come with a virtual partition* with back-up software. You want a formatted blank, single partition, drive.
Some are a partition in 'hardware' that cannot be erased or bypassed. *usually containing windoze auto-run backup software.
If you've got an old unused computers HDD available, those (under 20 buck) HDD to USB adapters work just fine also.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I've got 2 Openbox S9s, 2 AZBoxes and a Micro HD. I also have 3 hard drives that I use on various receivers. Two of those hard drives are SATA and one is IDE and all three are connected to my receivers with a "cheap" adapter kit I get off of fleabay. Here's a link to what I use.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-USB-2-0...ideo_Game_Cables_Adapters&hash=item43bccdb9fa

I put some stick on rubber pads on the top of the drive and lay it on the shelf upside down then connect it to the USB port on the receivers. Works for me!

FYI, the Openbox S9 receivers will work with either FAT32 or NTFS formatted hard drives. The AZBoxes will work with FAT32 or an EXT2 Linux partition but not with NTFS. Not sure what the Micro HD will use as I haven't set that up to record anything yet.

 

[xtgold]

a seagate 1.5tb drive I bought 2 years ago wouldn't work with my s10 unless it had old firmware from june 2011.The receiver wouldn't detect the drive.I had to rip it out of the case and use another case instead.

 

[cyberham]

Here using a 1TB Seagate "FreeAgent Desk" external drive powered from its own AC adapter. Always use the menu command to remove drive before physically removing drive cable from satellite receiver. I swap the drive between S9, microHD and PC without problems.

 

[toucan-man]

Always use the menu command to remove drive before physically removing drive cable from satellite receiver.

Does that do something different than just shutting the box off ?

 

[cyberham]

Not sure. I used to just pull out the USB cable. When I then connected the drive to another device, I'd have problems.

 

[primestar31]

Turning the receiver completely OFF also works to dismount the external drive.

The reason you want to use the menu EJECT to do this when you are leaving the receiver turned on, is the same reason you do it on your pc. It can screw up the drives FAT table (index) if you don't, and then you could effectively lose everything that's recorded on it. It's not always easy to fix a damaged FAT table, though there is software to do so and you can do so in some cases.

 

[northgeorgia]

Does that do something different than just shutting the box off ?

It can cause some errors on the hard drive, theoretically damaging it. I find that sometimes if I put the STB on standby while a recording is taking place the same sort of problem happens. Other times, I still have weird issues with recording, possibly due to something odd inside a feed? Anyway the usual message I receive is an "Limit Error: CAN not record" or something along those lines. The only fix I found for that is the following (using Windows, that is. I'm a Linux newbie, so still learning there):

1. Properly disconnect the drive from the STB through the menu screens.
2. Connect the drive to your computer and wait for your PC to recognize the drive.
3. Right click on the drive and select "Properties" from the drop down menu.
4. Select the "Tools" Tab in the dialogue box.
5. Under "Error-checking," click Check Now. You want to Automatically fix file system errors. I don't usually ask for a recovery of bad sectors.
6. After this is complete (usually in a few minutes), select "Defragmentation." Select the drive and click "Analyze disk." This could take just a few seconds up to quite a few minutes depending on the size of the drive and the last time you defragged it. If you get a 0% fragmentation, you can skip step #7.
7. If there is even a one percent fragmentation found after the analysis, I click on "Defragment Disk." Again, time can vary from a few minutes up to a couple of hours.
8. After this, be sure to disconnect the drive correctly with the proper "Safely remove hardware" menus for USB devices, and reconnect to your STB.

This, I have found, generally saves me from sudden headaches when the drive doesn't want to record a program. I'm using a WD 1TB external drive with its own power source.

 

[Gray1]

I went through several USB drives before I found one that will work. Adata S102 drive works very well in S9 even in High Definition.
It is USB 3.0, but it is compatable with 2.0 that the S9 has. I use 16GB. Works well for me. Just my 2 cents.

Gray1

 

[jorgek]

External drive for S9 Update

I got the USB stick to work. It now records HD programs without a hitch.
I stumbled on the fix.
I recently upgraded the S9 FW from S9-11-08-30.abs to the S9,S10,S11,S12_06182012.abs from the download section.
This version has a timer “fix” and “OFF” is displayed on the front panel when the power button on the remote is pressed to shut down the STB.
I decided to record a PBS program on 125W. I did not get the warning that the device was slow and I recorded a ½ hour of HD. Tried a couple more HD programs also without a hitch.

Thanks to Ke4est who provided the FW.

 

[glover31]

I got the USB stick to work. It now records HD programs without a hitch.
I stumbled on the fix.
I recently upgraded the S9 FW from S9-11-08-30.abs to the S9,S10,S11,S12_06182012.abs from the download section.
This version has a timer “fix” and “OFF” is displayed on the front panel when the power button on the remote is pressed to shut down the STB.


Thanks to Ke4est who provided the FW.

The S9-11-08-30.abs is total crap. My receiver would freeze up. It was the S9,S10,S11,S12_06182012.abs that fixed it. It does indeed say off but it is not. My hard drive is still powered on when its off.

 

[jorgek]

Never had any issues with the old FW other than trying to record HD to the USB stick. The "OFF" is actually some kind of standby mode. In "OFF" mode the STB is drawing approx 5 watts.

 

[glover31]

Install an external hard drive instead of a thumb drive. It will draw more. Not a big deal for me though. Its better than freezing up.

 

[jorgek]

Install an external hard drive instead of a thumb drive. It will draw more. Not a big deal for me though. Its better than freezing up.

My problem was resolved when I upgraded the firmware. The 16GB high speed USB stick is adequate for my needs.